CUSTOMERS’ BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS TOWARDS HERITAGE CAFÉ IN THE GEORGE TOWN WORLD HERITAGE SITE (WHS), PENANG, MALAYSIA

Since the listing of the George Town World Heritage Site, old buildings have been transformed into cafés, boutique hotels and home stays. In order to generate profit from the cafés, it is essential for the café owners to understand customer behavioral intentions towards heritage cafés. No previous study has investigated customers behavioral intentions towards heritage cafés in George Town. Therefore, to explore this phenomenon, the current research investigates the quality impacts of food, service, ambience and perceived price on customer behavioral intentions towards heritage cafés in George Town. A self-administered questionnaire based on previous validated scale was used. 300 completed questionnaires were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and SmartPLS. The findings indicated that the quality of food and service influences customer behavioral intentions significantly. However, ambience quality and perceived price have no significant positive impact on customer behavioral intentions. The current study adds to the literature on behavioral intentions by undertaking a study in a destination of significance to the Malaysian tourism economy. Moreover, the findings from this study help to provide some insights to heritage café owners in particular on the importance of improving food and service quality to attract loyal customers.